A dramatised account of one of the darkest days of the Civil War in Kerry will be screened at the Siamsa Tíre Theatre in Tralee in February as part of the programme of events for the three-day Kerry Civil War Conference, which marks the centenary of the conflict.
Ballyseedy, which was written and presented by the well-known broadcaster and journalist, Pat Butler, will be shown during the conference on Friday, February 24 at 8.00pm.
The dramatised documentary tells the story of the execution of eight anti-Treaty IRA prisoners near Tralee in March 1923 as the war in Kerry reached new depths of violence and barbarity. It was first broadcast on RTÉ in 1997 and repeated in March 1998 but it has not been shown publicly since then.
The upcoming screening has been arranged by the organisers of the Kerry Civil War Conference which runs from February 23-25 and which features over 20 historians, experts and academics in discussion about the war in Kerry and beyond and its legacy a century later, as well as other commemorative events.
The conference is supported by the Department of Culture under the Decade of Centenaries programme for 2023.
Admission to the event is free of charge but pre-booking is required through the Siamsa Tíre box office.
Owen O’Shea, one of the organisers of the Kerry Civil War Conference, said that the forthcoming conference is an appropriate time to present the 90-minute docudrama.
“We are extremely grateful to RTÉ for agreeing to share the programme with us and to Pat Butler who spent so many years researching and writing the piece. As the only televisual representation of events at Ballyseedy, it is a hugely important resource which contains interviews with eyewitnesses who are no longer with us,” he said.
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